On the newest episode of Exponent, the podcast I co-host with James Allworth: In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss Apple Pay and its impact on retailers and banks. Links Glenn Fleishman: A Week of Apple Pay: Chips, PINs, and…signatures? – Six Colors Ben Thompson: The Problem with Payments – Stratechery Ben Thompson: Why […]
October 2014
Daily Update: Tim Cook’s Announcement; Twitter Changes, Again; Nintendo’s Turnaround
Good morning, Today’s update is a little long, so I’ll just get started: Tim Cook’s Announcement Tim Cook publicly came out as gay in an essay that was published in Bloomberg Businessweek. Please read the whole thing if you have not. I feel it a disservice to break out even a paragraph. I myself haveSubscribe […]
Daily Update: A Tale of Three Smartphone Makers, Microsoft Health and the Microsoft Band
Good morning, There was a fair bit of Apple Pay news today, including conflicting reports about whether or not retailers can easily leave MCX, as well the fact that MCX got hacked (oops). All good news for Apple, in my estimation. James Allworth and I spent over an hour discussing it on a new episodeSubscribe […]
Daily Update: The Smiling Curve Applied to Amazon-Hachette, How Important are the FCC’s Proposed TV Changes?, Facebook’s Earnings
Good morning, A quick announcement: as some of you may know, Glassboard, which we’ve been using for the Stratechery message board for Access members, is closing down. A couple of relevant notes: For new Access members, this is why you have not received an invite I am implementing a new solution There will be broadSubscribe […]
Publishers and the Smiling Curve
Publishers used to live at the point of integration. The value of that integration, though, is gone with the Internet, which means value flows to suppliers and aggregators.
Daily Update: The Twitter Mismatch; Microsoft Cuts the Xbox Price, Again; The Office Platform
Good morning, Let’s get to it – on to the update: The Twitter Mismatch Twitter reported its third-quarter results yesterday. From the Wall Street Journal: One year after its initial public offering, Twitter Inc. is still having a hard time convincing investors to look beyond one touchy metric: user growth. The social-media company reported MondaySubscribe […]
Podcast: This Week in Tech – Good Touch, Bad Touch
I joined Leo Laporte, Philip Elmer-DeWitt and Dave Hamilton on This Week in Tech. We talked about Apple in China, Apple Pay, Peak Google, and more. You can download the show here.
Daily Update: Why Apple Pay was Blocked, and Why it Will Succeed; Google Reorgs, Kind Of
Good morning, I appeared on This Week in Tech yesterday; I’ll post something on Stratechery in a bit, but for now you can access the episode here. On to the update: Why Apple Pay was Blocked, and Why it Will Succeed At this point I presume most of you have heard about CVS and Rite-AidSubscribe […]
Podcast: Exponent Episode 022 – Peak Google, Monologue Edition
On the newest episode of Exponent, the podcast I co-host with James Allworth: In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss Ben’s article “Peak Google” and the future of advertising. Links Ben Thompson: Peak Google – Stratechery Benedict Evans: The Irrelevance of Microsoft – Ben-Evans.com Peter Kriss: The Value of Customer Experience, Quantified – Harvard […]
Daily Update: Microsoft Earnings and Surface’s Alleged Success, Amazon Earnings and the Fire Fantasy, The End of the Apple-GT Advanced Saga
Good morning, I hope you’ll forgive a longer update today: as you can see from the title, I’ve written something of a young-adult fiction trilogy. On to the update: Microsoft Earnings and Surface’s Alleged Success Microsoft reported its earnings yesterday and they were on balance very good. From Bloomberg: Microsoft Corp.’s quarterly sales topped estimatesSubscribe […]